Report: Sony Contacted All Major Third Parties for Exclusivity Deals, Offered More Money Than Microsoft

SirTerry-T said:
Serious question Bo, why would you want Xbox to vanish? If you don't like it, don't buy it.

It's all,ultimately, just chunks of plastic and silicon that we play games on to escape from our real concerns for a few hours. I can appreciate the fact that you are a big Sony fan...nothing wrong with that but why get so wound up over the other team that you have no intention of supporting anyway? :)
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I have a problem with MS, I don't like them, before xbox being a thing. :lollipop_tears_of_joy: Plus, I would welcome a healthy competition like early Xbox 360, not gamepass and dragging games down to share those $1-10 per month among 100+ games.

If they're not going to Gamepass, I can see them be huge success. Honestly, I think this GamePass will be Bethesda's grave: Not getting enough budget, not getting enough time to produce a massive game, then not getting the money they deserve from solo sales but share the money with other fillers.

I still know what MS is, and that Xbox One DRM and all the BS was the plan, and will come again in another shape if they "sniff" success.
 
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Bo_Hazem said:
I have a problem with MS, I don't like them, before xbox being a thing. :lollipop_tears_of_joy: Plus, I would welcome a healthy competition like early Xbox 360, not gamepass and dragging games down to share those $1-10 per month among 100+ games.

If they're not going to Gamepass, I can see them be huge success. Honestly, I think this GamePass will be Bethesda's grave: Not getting enough budget, not getting enough time to produce a massive game, then not getting the money they deserve solo sales but share the money with other fillers.

I still know what MS is, and that Xbox One DRM and all the BS was the plan, and will come again in another shape if they "sniff" success.
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That's still not a reason to want Xbox to die though.
 
People talking about waking a bear and all this hyperbole...

Well let me add my own hyperbole to the mix. There is a brave little animal in Africa called the honey badger, just the size of a small dog...but immediately one senses its physical power and determination.

Here is some live footage of MS, Amazon and Google trying to attack Sony...



 
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I have a PS5 pre-ordered already and have no doubts that I will get my moneys worth.

Even so, FUCK this shit with buying (timed) exlusitivity or entire studios that already have games under development...

Imagine if all this Sony and Microsoft money went into funding new games from scratch and promote daring innovative ideas (instead of 'design by commité' boring crap). More good games would be made, the companies would generate more good will. And if there is anything left in modern humans worth preserving, they would also get more sales of their games and consoles and increase their profit.
 
Bryank75 said:
People talking about waking a bear and all this hyperbole...

Well let me add my own hyperbole to the mix. There is a brave little animal in Africa called the honey badger, just the size of a small dog...but immediately one senses its physical power and determination.

Here is some live footage of MS, Amazon and Google trying to attack Sony...



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We got that bastard here as well.:lollipop_tears_of_joy: But lions are extinct, only leopards and caracals.:lollipop_crying:
 
Andodalf said:
Funny how fast perception changes when words give way to action
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What he said still holds true though. Ryan was in charge during the Insomniac acquisition and has said he's open to further acquisitions where the previous management refused or just didn't do that.

The "Playstation Advantage" marketing is genius that will make huge mindshare with casuals. He's a great business man and made Sony's most successful region even more successful.
 
CAB_Life said:
Apparently the figure they should've opened with was 7.5B.
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Personally if they spent 7.5 bill on one I would have disliked it. Id rsther sony spread their money and pick up blupoint and housemarque who have been solid and consistent with them quality wise to compete with the best
 
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Buying publishers is just dumb, you aren't getting more games for your service because they'd have come anyway all you are doing is taking them away from a competitor. I get why it's done and Spencer would deny it but it's to try to make your platform more attractive, MS in 3 generations couldn't come up with enough IP that attracted people to their platform to make them anything better than 3rd place so they decided to do what MS always does and started spending money that they make outside of a particular industry to try to buy their way into contention instead of doing it the better way which would be earning a customer base through a steady stream of high quality popular product releases.
 
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
 
DavJay said:
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
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Like asking Bandai Namco about bringing back Ridge Racer or asking Square for a Parasite Eve remake.
 
Bethesta recent games were trash or did not sell enought to save te company, only Doom improved but Fallout 4 y 76 are trash and gsmes like Evil with in 2, Dishonored, Prey, Rage 2 did not move money to the company.

MIcrosoft needed games not temporal exclusives like Sony, they saw the opportunity with Bethesda and got it. Sony just got some ecclusives to complement their great portafolio they do not needed to buy an studio.

That is why exclusives always will move the vidoegame industry.
 
FranXico said:
Careful what you wish for. If MS buries Sony, you won't like it long term. You should know what MS is capable of.
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Yeah. Maybe they'd charge 80 euros for games. Yikes.

But I get your point, and that goes both ways.
 
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DavJay said:
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
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Sony is the distant market leader at selling consoles, games, game services, game streaming and non-mobile/premium VR. For PS5 they are manufacturing more consoles than they did for PS4, which set all time home console history record for best launch weekend, month, FY (4 months) and full year (Nov. to Nov.). PS5 has many big AAA exclusives (both timed and full) for the first year, and several of them for the launch day. Even if manufacturing at record levels preorders are selling out in minutes, they will sell really fast all that units they are able to produce during their first months.

If someone is in panic mode is the one who paid $7.5B for a publisher because can't compete with Sony in these markets. The ones who have an indie as their only next gen exclusive -or their only next gen only game- on launch day, and a single big AAA (crossgen) exclusive for their first year, a first year where outside this big AAA (crossgen) exclusive their game subscription service will only get previous gen games and some indies, even after paying these $7.5B.

Basically at least during the first months seems very likely that Sony will sell more than any other console in gaming history, and that they will sell out very fast being supply constrained even if producing at all time record levels. So very likely can't do anything to sell more.
 
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Timed exclusives are such a waste of money. Rather than the Death Loop type deals, actually picking up a studio or two would have been better.

If you can wait out the timed exclusive period, you usually end up with a more complete game. Including all dlcs released within that time frame.

Jim Ryan definitely doesn't look like the right guy for the job.
 
yurinka said:
Sony is the distant market leader at selling consoles, games, game services, game streaming and non-mobile/premium VR. For PS5 they are manufacturing more consoles than they did for PS4, which set all time home console history record for best launch weekend, month, FY (4 months) and full year (Nov. to Nov.). PS5 has many big AAA exclusives (both timed and full) for the first year, and several of them for the launch day. Even if manufacturing at record levels preorders are selling out in minutes, they will sell really fast all that units they are able to produce during their first months.

If someone is in panic mode is the one who paid $7.5B for a publisher because can't compete with Sony in these market. The ones who have an indie as their only next gen exclusive -or their only next gen only game- on launch day, and a single big AAA (crossgen) exclusive for their first year, a first year where outside this big AAA (crossgen) exclusive their game subscription service will only get previous gen games and some indies, even after paying these $7.5B.
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Stop! He's already dead!
Lol
 
Timed exclusives just gives you an incomplete game. It's like paying for you competitor to have the definitive edition later.
 
Bo_Hazem said:
I want Sega/Nintendo to step up their game in that space, and I want Google to man up and enter the PC space with a decent OS.
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You hate MS but want Google of all companies to "step it up"?

Also I don't see why Nintendo would want to bleed money on pushing graphics again when they are very profitable with modest hardware. SEGA doesn't have the funds to launch a game console in today's industry, unless it were something like the Amico in terms of target market and resources (I still want them to do a new powerful arcade system though).

yurinka said:
Sony is the distant market leader at selling consoles, games, game services, game streaming and non-mobile/premium VR. For PS5 they are manufacturing more consoles than they did for PS4, which set all time home console history record for best launch weekend, month, FY (4 months) and full year (Nov. to Nov.). PS5 has many big AAA exclusives (both timed and full) for the first year, and several of them for the launch day. Even if manufacturing at record levels preorders are selling out in minutes, they will sell really fast all that units they are able to produce during their first months.

If someone is in panic mode is the one who paid $7.5B for a publisher because can't compete with Sony in these market. The ones who have an indie as their only next gen exclusive -or their only next gen only game- on launch day, and a single big AAA (crossgen) exclusive for their first year, a first year where outside this big AAA (crossgen) exclusive their game subscription service will only get previous gen games and some indies, even after paying these $7.5B.
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It's not healthy to be this angry.
 
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Bo_Hazem said:
I want Sega/Nintendo to step up their game in that space, and I want Google to man up and enter the PC space with a decent OS.
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Since when Windows is not decent OS and since when would you like to have aads based on your homework folder, tho?

Typed from macOS
 
Bryank75 said:
People talking about waking a bear and all this hyperbole...

Well let me add my own hyperbole to the mix. There is a brave little animal in Africa called the honey badger, just the size of a small dog...but immediately one senses its physical power and determination.

Here is some live footage of MS, Amazon and Google trying to attack Sony...



Click to expand...


I agree it is not just about the size. Steve Jobs took on MS when Apple was in tatters. Today Apple has bigger market cap than even MS.

But when you have Jim Ryan leading the charge. We have seen him in action for the past few years. Do you think he is SCE's honey badger? 🤷‍♀️
 
Bryank75 said:
People talking about waking a bear and all this hyperbole...
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I know its pretty cringe. Worse was Mess with the Bull and you get the horn... bleagh
Even more cringe than my love for Cerny and Kojima lol.

One of the reason Im ok with Luna coming into the play.
All these guys supported MS buying there way to "victory" Now they have another company with the same money and approach in business. Buy Buy buy when talent doesnt work out for them. Fortunetly this isn't sport and cant buy your way to victory.

I feel Sony and Nintendo are more than fine now because they have actual organic talent and fans that aren't going anywhere
 
Bo_Hazem said:
I want Sega/Nintendo to step up their game in that space, and I want Google to man up and enter the PC space with a decent OS.
Click to expand...
giphy.gif
 
Kokoloko85 said:
I know its pretty cringe. Worse was Mess with the Bull and you get the horn... bleagh
Even more cringe than my love for Cerny and Kojima lol.

One of the reason Im ok with Luna coming into the play.
All these guys supported MS buying there way to "victory" Now they have another company with the same money and approach in business. Buy Buy buy when talent doesnt work out for them. Fortunetly this isn't sport and cant buy your way to victory.

I feel Sony and Nintendo are more than fine now because they have actual organic talent and fans that aren't going anywhere
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you are aware that Sony bought most if their studios too right? people seem to forget this because it didn't happen this gen.
 
01011001 said:
you are aware that Sony bought most if their studios too right? people seem to forget this because it didn't happen this gen.
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Please tell me when sony spent 7.5 billion?

Please tell me when Sony didnt buy a company they had been working with before as 2nd party and built them up. I can name you 2
 
I didn't see this outrage when Activision announced free upgrade of Nextgen Call Of Duty for PS5 and charges Xbox Series systems for same upgrade.
 
Kokoloko85 said:
Please tell me when sony spent 7.5 billion?

Please tell me when Sony didnt buy a company they had been working with before as 2nd party and built them up. I can name you 2
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So now it's OK Sony does it because they didn't spent 7.5 billions,which makes ms bad.

IIf Sony could actually afford it they would have done it.
 
I'm extremely split. While I think the purchase is actually bad for the industry in general, they could have been bought by someone worse.

With all the bad acquisitions happening these days, I'm very lightly leaning in favor of this being a good thing.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
You hate MS but want Google of all companies to "step it up"?

Also I don't see why Nintendo would want to bleed money on pushing graphics again when they are very profitable with modest hardware. SEGA doesn't have the funds to launch a game console in today's industry, unless it were something like the Amico in terms of target market and resources (I still want them to do a new powerful arcade system though).



It's not healthy to be this angry.
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Any resemblance of rational thinking has disappeared since the Bethesda buy-out from Sony fans. A seismic shift happened online where they have been unable to come to terms that all their sh*t talking points simply evaporated and don't got anything to bitch about Xbox anymore. As Xbox now has both power and games on its side a complete 180 to the launch of last generation.
 
The_Mike said:
So now it's OK Sony does it because they didn't spent 7.5 billions,which makes ms bad.

IIf Sony could actually afford it they would have done it.
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Im not making it good or bad.
If MS had the money the other VG companies had they would of failed a long time ago, take that as you will
 
DavJay said:
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
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Spending large $$$ on 3rd party timed exclusives isn't really the smart play - in the long term.

I'm still wondering what the rumoured 750m spend is?
 
Microsoft made it clear that we're only interested in expanding game pass as THE selling point. Sony threatened that buy starting to buy up timed exclusives for some big publishers. So MS bought Bethesda to ex and GP even further, but are looking at Sony now like you were trying screw over our business model so we are going to adapt your business model. In the end it ends up hurting all gamers, but make no mistake that Sony triggered this.
 
DavJay said:
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
Click to expand...

I may be completely wrong but Sony has been reactive this entire build-up to next-gen. I do not believe the original design spec of the PS5 was boosting a GPU to 2.2ghz. I also don't believe the PS5 price point of $499/$399 was set earlier in the year.
 
jigglet said:
I'm extremely split. While I think the purchase is actually bad for the industry in general, they could have been bought by someone worse.

With all the bad acquisitions happening these days, I'm very lightly leaning in favor of this being a good thing.
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Imagine if EA had acquired Bethesda.
 
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Sony's business model very much seems to be times exclusive-based when not leveraging their own exclusive games of course.

Seems to me that Microsoft fought back the only possible way by buying Studios to make exclusive content all the while using the resources at their disposal.

How anyone thought that something like this wasn't inevitable is beyond me. Sony just cannot compete with Microsoft in this regard. There will be other large acquisitions from Microsoft in the future as well. It's inevitable.

Sony has extreme pressure to not fail with their exclusives. One generation of games that fail to live up to standards could dramatically increase xbox market share as game pass keeps providing unavoidable value to casual gamers. Also, Sony has to do everything possible to keep xbox on the fringes in Asian markets. I feel as if Sony is playing a short term game that can't hold up in the future. Microsoft is correct in seeing Amazon, Google and Apple as the real competitors in this space. Microsoft doesn't really care about selling consoles, they care about services.

Hope I'm wrong though as having multiple consoles is awesome for choice!
 
DavJay said:
Seems Sony is in full panic mode but timed exclusives is not the answer. Money was wasted on games they would get anyway. Spend the money on new ips or on games that wouldn't happen otherwise.
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Games that otherwise wouldn't exist, and would probably sell a fraction of units, and move a fraction of consoles compared to something like Final Fantasy 16.
 
How people aren't seeing the big picture for Sony right now is beyond me. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are legit juggernauts with the capital to starve Sony out, if all 3 companies begin buying up publishers. Sony just doesn't have the muscle to pull a move like the one with Bethesda. That's not hard to see if you look at the kind of deals they usually go for. If they could acquire an entire publishing arm, they would have. Instead its been a bunch of temp exclusivity deals. Game streaming is going to take off this gen, too.

They can't even begin to play in that arena. Sony will do well this gen but for sure, but things have changed substantially, even with just Microsoft buying up Bethesda. That changed the game completely in one bold move. Things definitely got real interesting.
 
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